The genesis of this article is the recollection of a reality so stark that that even a hardened cynic was shocked. Recently we visited the beautiful coastal town of Lambert’s Bay and in driving there marvelled at the influx of wealth into the West coast. The picturesque, yet forbidden and stark landscapes, are being transformed into playgrounds of the rich. Quaint fishing homes are being bought and transformed into mansions. Nothing wrong with that I thought, as development outside the main urban centres are necessary to bring utility for the rural citizens of our country.
Any lingering illusions or naivety were shattered the next day. On Saturday morning, we watched a truck bring farm labourers into town for festive-season shopping. Among them were young children with thin legs, bulging eyes, and distended stomachs – my first direct encounter with foetal alcohol syndrome. We were deeply shocked that the alcohol-for-work system remained so pervasive decades into democracy. Within half an hour, the group had finished shopping and moved to a liquor outlet. Pregnant women drank cheap alcohol in the street, intent on becoming intoxicated as quickly as possible.
I urged a police officer to intervene, but he refused, claiming that the practice was part of their culture and that intervention would provoke a riot. Any romantic notions I still held about our liberation vanished, reinforcing the urgent need for renewed activism on all fronts, especially the intellectual activism that had served us so well in the past.
Intellectual activism crucial in tackling real-world problems
Intellectual activism applies scholarship, ideas, and critical analysis to real-world problems in pursuit of social justice. Popularised by scholar Patricia Hill Collins, it challenges the pursuit of knowledge solely for its own sake and instead promotes public engagement and wider access to research. It does not seek to supplant “blue-sky” research. Rather, it extends scholarship beyond academia so that knowledge can enrich society and serve ordinary citizens.
After all fundamental nanophysics research conducted in the 1980’s led to stupendous advancement in information and communication technologies with billions of transistors founding functional architecture on real estate the size a person’s nail. In a recent article we guarded against the unchecked expansion of AI which has the potential to introduce fresh set of inequalities arguing for smart city design to be leveraged for restorative social justice .
During the South African struggle for democracy, intellectual activism provided a powerful battle front against institutionalised racism, often turning the tables on the apartheid sponsored dogmas perpetuated by pliant universities. It provided structured responses to brutal repression, provided support for the underground and shape the strategies that predicated the demise of the regime. Thinkers, students, and writers weaponised education, philosophy, and research to dismantle the regime’s ideological foundations. Because the state heavily censored and policed the physical space, the intellectual realm became a critical battleground for liberation. Ironically, the architects of Apartheid, albeit morally reprehensible, constructed intellectual frameworks premised on intellectual frameworks premised on Nazism.
Regrettably, academic voices have faded from crucial post-1994 democratic debates for various, often contested, reasons, leaving a moral and ethical vacuum. The consequences are evident in pervasive crime, rising youth unemployment, and deteriorating infrastructure. Too little attention has been paid to apartheid’s lasting effects on South Africans’ mental health. Signs of post-traumatic stress are evident in high crime levels, widespread cynicism and disillusionment, and deepening racial inequality.
Although South Africa adopted an internationally acclaimed constitution and well-designed social policies, capitalist pressures and incentives thwart implementation. According to StatsSA, South Africa has an estimated Gini coefficient of 0.65, establishing it as one of the most economically unequal nations globally. South Africa’s GDP per capita languishes between $6,200 to $6,600 USD. The long-term trend has been stagnant over the past decade, remaining near or below peaks achieved around 2007–2011, as slow economic growth struggles to match population expansion. Extreme wealth inequality further deepens social divisions: when the gap between rich and poor widens unchecked, citizens inhabit separate economic, geographic, and cultural realities.
Extractive capitalism de facto economic model
Trickle-down economics in capitalist-leaning countries, including South Africa, where in practical terms the country is driven by extractive capitalism as the de facto economic model, has failed to deliver its promised benefits and continues to disadvantage marginalised communities. A similar pattern is evident in the United States, where wealth inequality exceeds that of any other major developed economy.
By 1 January 2026, the combined net worth of the twelve wealthiest American billionaires had surpassed $2.7 trillion, more than four times their $608 billion total on 18 March 2020, according to an Institute for Policy Studies analysis of Forbes data. The wealthiest 1% of U.S. households own about one-third of the country’s wealth, nearly matching the combined share held by the bottom 90%, leaving the vast majority exposed to ravages of poverty and economic exclusion.
Instead, we should look to social democracies such as Norway and Sweden, which achieve post-tax-and-transfer Gini coefficients of about 0.25 while maintaining the world’s highest GDP per capita levels. Through progressive taxation, robust welfare systems, and high productivity, these countries seek to combine broad prosperity with greater equity and inclusion.
This stasis in South Africa’s development ambitions continue to lay vulnerable the fragility and paucity of our democracy: the constitutional right to dignity being violated. Yet a profound social tragedy is met with indifference or rather dispassionateness from the intellectuals. It led me to question the state of our activism, particularly intellectual activism. Although the government has adopted credible restorative-justice policies and invested heavily in the social wage, the results remain distressingly unimpactful. Noble intentions are too often undermined by rent-seeking politicians and bureaucrats criminally diverting resources from the destitute.
Why can’t we lift ourselves from stagnation?
Critical questions need to be posed as to why we cannot lift ourselves from this morass of stagnation. Are we relying too heavily on the government to rebuild the country? What has become of the creation, curation, and exchange of knowledge in our universities? Why are we not learning from societies that have undergone, or are still navigating, similar transitions? And why do we criticise without demanding measurable outcomes?
In practical terms intellectual activism is defined by:
• Engaged scholarship by transcending the classroom or laboratories deliver the academic project to impact public policy and community struggles.
• Challenging power through critical thinking and constructive engagements to empower authority, expose systemic inequalities, and hold powerful institutions accountable.
• Social justice focus: directing intellectualism towards the building of fair, equitable, and democratic institutions and social systems.
• Radical responsibility: understanding that intellectuals are duty bound and expected to participate in shaping society and choosing to transform rather than reproduce injustice.
Intellectual activism thrives when:
• Academic freedom is protected by creating the space to ideate, engage society and be allowed to hold contrary views as should be norm in any case for any self-respecting academic.
• Intellectuals are actively developing the skills to reach citizens through publishing research in accessible formats, media outlets, and public forums rather than confined their work to areas behind academic paywalls.
• Collaborating with grassroots movements to co-create solutions for local and structural challenges through empowering community dialogues is encouraged.
• Curricula are designed that address systemic discrimination, race, gender, and class or produce critical thinking in students to appreciative of the drivers of the ecosystems and the imperative of intellectual honesty.
South Africans need not start from nothing.
Around the world, intellectual activism has helped societies become healthier, more inclusive, and more vibrant. For example, trauma-informed curricula have improved outcomes for children from highly stressed communities. This found application at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in Vereeniging, South Africa. As intellectuals, we must study such initiatives and develop innovative solutions situated within the South African context. In doing so, we can help overcome the hopelessness that prevail in our country.
Also Read: Oprah to hand over over girls’ academy to Gauteng education department
- The author observed alarming poverty and foetal alcohol syndrome among farm labourers in Lambert's Bay, despite the area's increasing wealth and development.
- Intellectual activism, which applies scholarship to social justice issues and public engagement, played a key role in South Africa's anti-apartheid struggle but has diminished post-1994.
- South Africa remains one of the most economically unequal countries, with a Gini coefficient of 0.65 and stagnant GDP per capita between $6,200 and $6,600 USD over the past decade.
- The article critiques reliance on government efforts alone to solve social issues, calling for renewed intellectual activism to address inequalities, corruption, and social stagnation.
- Successful intellectual activism requires academic freedom, accessible communication of research, collaboration with grassroots movements, and education that fosters critical thinking on systemic discrimination.
